2014/15 business plan consultation

2014/15 Business Plan Consultation

Money Advice Service Business Plan 2014/15

Section 2Money Advice Service Business Plan 2013/14

Section2

Contents

moneyadviceservice.org.uk

Introduction to the consultation 3

Introduction to the Money Advice Service – our roles and ambition for the future 5

A look back at 2013/14 8

Focus on 2014/15 – our strategic themes 13

Theme 1: Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives 16

Theme 2: Improving access to high quality debt advice for over-indebted people 21

Theme 3: Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability 26

Evaluation of the Service and measuring our impact 31

Resource summary 2014/15 38

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk


3Introduction to the consultation

Introduction to the consultationThis year’s business plan is designed to build upon the achievements of the past three years. It is a plan with partnership at its heart, based around evaluation, consolidation and service improvement.

In December 2013, the National Audit Office concluded that the Money Advice Service was achieving value for money in its debt advice work and is moving in the right direction on money advice. This plan shows how we will respond to their specific recommendations.

Also in December 2013, the Treasury Sub-Committee published a report following their inquiry into the Service, which had started in May 2012. This plan also reflects our response.

During 2014/15 we will:

extend the reach of our free and impartial money advice, with the aim of 15 million customer contacts coming to the Service

step up efforts to stop people when they are going about their daily business, get them to think about their money and take action to improve their finances; our target is for 4.5 million actions to be taken by people after coming to the Service

further evaluate our Service to understand what works to change people’s financial behaviours

help customers to get advice from regulated advisers or elsewhere, if we are unable to provide it ourselves

provide secure funding for free debt advice in England and Wales, through three year grant agreements with partners

work with the debt sector to ensure that advice is provided where there are gaps, to get advice to those who need it most and to ensure that people are able to access advice in the way that best suits their needs

develop and deliver A Financial Capability Strategy for the UK in collaboration with stakeholders

deliver all of this, whilst reducing our budget by £0.8 million.

Through this, we hope to take further steps towards our ultimate goals of more people accessing money and debt advice, more people managing their money better, fewer people in debt, and a UK which is more financially capable.


Introduction to the consultation

4

This document sets out the Money Advice Service’s draft business plan for 2014/15 for consultation.

We invite stakeholders to review our draft plan and provide feedback on it. We have included questions on particular areas where we would welcome views below.

The consultation closes on 14 February 2014. Responses should be sent to: [email protected]

We will publish the final 2014/15 business plan in March 2014.

General:nnDo you think the business plan sets the right direction for the Service?

nnDoes the plan present our priorities, initiatives and budget in a clear way and is it easy to understand (written in plain English)?

nnOverall, is there anything missing from the business plan that you would expect to see?

Specific questions:

Chapter 2:Is there anything you would add to our reflections on these achievements based on your experience of the Service during 2013/14?

Chapter 3: Have we identified the right strategic priorities and themes for the Service in 2014/15? Is anything missing from these priorities for 2014/15?

Theme 1: In addition to example initiatives we have described in Theme 1, how else could we make the Service more engaging for customers so that we help them manage their money effectively?

Theme 2: How best can we work with other funders of advice to enhance the experience for over-indebted people?

What would you suggest that we and the sector should focus on, using the insight from our recent customer segmentation research, to put in place the best possible services for over-indebted people?

Theme 3:In addition to leading and coordinating the UK strategy, conducting research, and supporting other organisations, what other activity should the Service undertake with others to improve the financial capability of the UK?

Chapter 7: Our revised KPI framework is intended to capture the impact of the Service on individuals and also across the advice landscape. Do you think it does this?

How else can we measure the effectiveness of the Service? In particular we would welcome the views of other advice organisations on how they measure ‘engagement’ and the actions taken by their customers.

Consultation questions

mailto:businessplan%40moneyadviceservice.org.uk?subject=Consultation%20responses%20to%20the%2014/15%20Money%20Advice%20Service%20Business%20Plan


5Introduction to the Money Advice Service

Our roles and ambition for the future The Money Advice Service exists to change people’s lives, by helping them make the most of their money, both through our own Service and by working with others.We know that the need for free, unbiased money advice is growing across the UK: in 2013 over half of UK adults struggled to keep up with their bills and credit commitments, compared to just over a third in 20061. Almost 9 million people in the UK are over-indebted2 and less than a fifth of these people are currently accessing advice to get help to manage their debts3.

We also know that the need for money advice is not equal across the population – some groups of people struggle with their finances more than others. This could be because they have a limited income, because they are financially excluded, or because they lack the skills and knowledge to manage their money well. So, whilst our Service is for everyone, there are some people who would benefit from our help more than others.

We aim to meet this need by fulfilling three key roles:

First, we provide people with generic information about money matters – covering a wide range of issues and life events – and we help them take action to better manage their finances so that they can manage day-to-day, cope with financial shocks, and achieve their life goals. We do this directly, primarily on the web but also over the phone and face-to-face, and in partnership with other organisations.

Second, we help people who are facing unmanageable debt get their finances back in order. We do this by funding a proportion of free debt advice in England and Wales, co-funding programmes in partnerships with the Governments of Scotland and Northern Ireland, and by coordinating efforts across the debt advice sector to improve the quality, consistency and availability of debt advice.

Third, we are a leader and influencer beyond our own Service. We coordinate and facilitate the improvement of the financial capability landscape across the UK by working closely with stakeholders to agree priorities and action plans. We share insight and research about how best to help individuals improve their money management with other organisations, including Government, the financial services industry, other advice providers and consumer and education groups.

Introduction to the Money Advice Service

! p.10, The Financial Capability of the UK, Money Advice Service, 2013.

2 These are individuals who have been behind with their bills in three months of the last six, or have said that they feel their debts are a heavy burden.

3 p.3, Indebted Lives: The Complexities of Life in Debt, Money Advice Service, 2013.


Introduction to the Money Advice Service

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In fulfilling these three roles, it is important that we complement the work of other organisations in the advice landscape. We will work with the financial adviser community to make sure that customers who need regulated financial advice are directed to the right part of the financial services system at the right time. We also want to make sure that we avoid duplicating the content and services provided by other advice organisations, whilst maintaining a coherent source of advice, only creating content or delivering services where we think there is a gap or unmet customer need. For example, we provide comparison tables on financial products like mortgages because we believe there is a need for an independent and whole-of-market summary.

Our ambition for the future is to be highly effective across our three roles and, through this, to contribute to improving the overall financial capability of the UK.

In the future, we want to see:

nnFewer people becoming over-indebted

nnMore people keeping track of their finances and budgeting to achieve life goals

nnMore people planning ahead for their retirement

nnMore people being financially resilient by protecting themselves and their assets

These are ambitions that the Money Advice Service cannot achieve on its own. They are influenced by a range of factors affecting the individual: both external (economic and regulatory), and internal (personal circumstance, skills, attitudes, and motivations. No one organisation can influence all of these factors. Therefore, improving the capability of the UK requires close collaboration between all stakeholders.

To support this collaboration, the Money Advice Service is working with stakeholders to develop and deliver A Financial Capability Strategy for the UK (referred to in this Business Plan as “the UK Strategy”). This is a strategy for the UK, owned by stakeholders across the advice landscape. The Service will coordinate the development of the UK Strategy and work with stakeholders to deliver a comprehensive understanding of financial capability initiatives, what is effective and what isn’t, shared priorities for action and a common evaluation strategy.

As part of the UK Strategy, we will continue to monitor the financial capability of the UK, as well as that of our customer base. In 2013 we developed five key indicators of basic money management: saving regularly, managing debt, protecting dependents, protecting assets and saving for retirement. We are currently tracking how many times the Service has helped people take any of these basic steps, as well as tracking the UK population’s behaviour against these five indicators. We will add ‘basic budgeting’ to this list, and continue to refine these indicators going forward.

What is financial capability?

We have worked with stakeholders across the sector to define financial capability. A financially capable person is someone who keeps track of their money, plans ahead, and is able to make informed decisions about their finances, understanding the risks and benefits of particular options.


7Introduction to the Money Advice Service

The three roles described in this chapter reflect a more mature service. The first three years of our operation involved building an advice model and the means to deliver it, making people aware of our free and impartial service, and crucially in 2012, taking on the responsibility for coordinating debt advice in the UK. We have now reached a point in the evolution of the organisation where we will focus on further refining our offer to really change people’s financial behaviours.

Our Business Plan for 2014/15 sets out how we will be more effective and efficient across our three core roles, to deliver a more engaging service for customers, based on deeper evaluation of what we do and further collaboration with stakeholders.

Our statutory objectives

The Money Advice Service exists to help people in the UK to understand financial matters and better manage their money. This purpose is set out in the Financial Services Act 2012, which outlines our three core objectives:

Improving people’s understanding and knowledge of financial matters

Improving people’s ability to manage their own financial affairs

Assisting members of the public with management of debt with a view to improving the availability, quality and consistency of debt advice services across the UK

The advice that we give to our customers is generic and intended to improve people’s basic skills and knowledge, as well as inform their attitudes and motivations to make good decisions about their money. Our advice is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and if a customer needs to access money advice on a topic that is regulated by the FCA, we set out when and how they should do this.

We operate across the whole of the UK and recognise that the role of the Service must be consistent with and complement the Programmes for Government in Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. We will continue to work closely with the devolved nations and regional authorities to ensure that we support their work and that we respond to local issues in designing and delivering our service.



A look back at 2013/14

This chapter looks at the experiences of 2013/14 and the delivery of our previous business plan, to draw out key lessons for developing the Service further in 2014/15. Overall, we believe the Service has made good progress against the strategic themes set out in the 2013/14 business plan.

Strategic theme 1: Giving advice and empowering people to take action, on our own and with others (figures up to date at time of publication)

nnMore people have used the Service than ever before, due to targeted campaigns and raised awareness of the Service. We averaged approximately 1.1 million visits to the website a month in 2013/14 – we anticipate about 12 million contacts to the Service in total in 2013/14. Just over 135,000 people have used our telephone, web-chat and face-to-face money advice services.

nn184,000 basic money steps were taken by customers as a result of the Service in the first quarter of 2013/14. These steps included managing debt, saving regularly, saving for retirement, protecting assets and providing for dependents.

nnWe have had a customer satisfaction rate of around of 85% (monthly average this year). In 2013, an average of 74% (against 70% target) of our customers have said they have taken action because of the Service.

nnWe have engaged with over 150 organisations - and 40 organisations from across financial services, private sector, third sector, and Government have syndicated our tools and content. We have developed links with key referrers, including Gov.uk, retail banks, supermarkets, parenting websites and many other organisations.


9A look back at 2013/14

Strategic theme 2: Improving the quality, consistency and availability of debt advice services across the UK

nnWe are on target to help 150,000 people in crisis debt in England and Wales receive high quality debt advice this year. We also provide funding in Scotland and Northern Ireland, through partnerships with their governments to support people who are over-indebted.

nnWorking with the sector, we have agreed and implemented a new framework which sets a quality standard for debt advice delivery at organisational and individual level (the quality framework). Organisations and advisers are able to have their quality standards and membership codes accredited against this framework.

nnWe developed and published a new evaluation framework to measure the effectiveness of debt advice. The framework was developed through primary research with the over-indebted population, through testing with the advice sector, and expert input from Bristol University. It will give a much richer picture of the effectiveness of debt advice sessions.

nnWe introduced a new stream of funding via the Scottish Legal Aid Board to promote debt advice for particularly marginalised groups. This has resulted in partnerships with new organisations such as Scottish Women’s Aid, Shelter Scotland, NHS Greater Glasgow and Deaf Action Scotland. Based on the successful development of the programme, the Scottish Government have decided to invest further funds to expand its reach.

nnWe published research setting out the different attitudes, behaviours, and needs of the over-indebted population in the UK (referred to in this document as our customer segmentation research).



Strategic theme 3: Equipping young people with the skills, attitudes and behaviour to manage their money more effectively

nnWe published research into the financial capability of 15 – 17 year olds. This research showed that the biggest influence on young people and their spending habits is their parents and that they will emulate their parents’ money behaviour – good and bad.

nnWe published research into the formation of money habits in young children. This research showed that money habits are formed at a very young age, and modelled primarily on the behaviour of parents. As a result of these insights, we are producing content for parents to help them teach their children good money habits.

nnWe are producing specific tools and content for young people – including new mobile phone apps co-created with young people, supporting sensible borrowing and savings practices.

Strategic theme 4: Influencing the financial capability landscape

nnWe commenced the biggest and deepest study of financial capability in the UK – publishing a new baseline of the UK financial capability in August, which we will continue tracking in 2014/15.

nnWe commenced development of ‘A Financial Capability Strategy for the UK’: published a Call for Evidence, held consultation events around the country and established a Steering Group to oversee the Strategy.


11A look back at 2013/14

Key reflections on 2013/14

We want to build on the achievements of 2013/14 and help even more people manage their money better. We expect more people to contact the Service in the future, particularly via our website. Our focus must be on making these visits more engaging and more useful for people, so that customers go away with a real understanding and confidence about what to do next.

Developing effective partnerships was a big theme for us in 2013/14. We have made connections with a wide range of organisations, and will strengthen these and build new relationships in the coming year.

A key way to make the Service more useful and engaging for people is through careful evaluation of our content and tools. Whilst we already survey customer satisfaction, we want to apply a much more rigorous evaluation of what does and doesn’t work to help someone make a positive decision about their money. This insight will be valuable for stakeholders and the wider advice sector, as well as for the Service.

Over the last year, we have learnt that evidence around successful intervention programmes to improve people’s financial capability is lacking. We intend to gather more evidence through the development of the UK Strategy.

Another key lesson we have learnt is that there is an appetite for more collaborative working across government, the financial services industry, the voluntary sector and the advice sector. The UK Strategy will play a key role in helping to identify priorities areas for action and set out a plan for the next few years.

In December 2013, the Treasury Sub-Committee and National Audit Office published reports on the Service.

The NAO report looked at the Service’s value for money and concluded that the Service delivers value for money on our debt advice work, and is heading in the right direction on money advice. Encouragingly, the NAO’s recommendations cover activities which are already underway, or planned for 2014/15 and beyond.

The main recommendation of the TSC was to bring forward the planned review of the Money Advice Service. This is a matter for the Treasury. In a number of areas we have already taken on board their views and we will continue to reflect on what more we can do.

The following chapter outlines our key priorities and work for 2014/15, and the strategic themes that will frame this work.


Focus on 2014/15: our strategic themes

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Focus on 2014/15: our strategic themesOur strategic direction in 2014/15 is a consolidation and evolution of last year’s business plan.

Our priorities are to:

Powerfully engage with the UK population in a way that makes seeking money advice the normal thing to do.

Deepen our understanding of customers and their needs, so we can better respond to them and reduce the risk of people falling into unmanageable debt.

Evaluate the Service to understand what does and doesn’t work, and make improvements so we are more engaging and help more people take action.

Be even more collaborative and open with stakeholders – for instance we will set up a reference panel of research experts to help us evaluate the Service and identify wider gaps in knowledge across the sector.

Enhance the quality and consistency of debt advice by further raising the standards of our funded debt advice programmes.

Improve the financial capability of people who access free debt advice through linking up our money advice and debt advice services in a more coherent way for customers.

Enhance our role as a leader and influencer, turning the enthusiasm and efforts of all stakeholders into joint action plans to improve the financial capability of the UK.


13Focus on 2014/15: our strategic themes

With these priorities in mind, we have drawn out three strategic themes to help shape our business and set our objectives, activities and key performance indicators in 2014/15:

nnTheme 1: Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives

nnTheme 2: Improving access to high quality debt advice for over-indebted people

nnTheme 3: Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability

We have decided not to include help for young people as a specific theme in 2014/15, as we did in last year’s plan. This year’s business plan sets out how we will continue to pursue initiatives to help young people under each of the strategic themes.

Strategic theme 1: Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives

We will enhance the impact of our advice service, by focusing on providing more people with the help they need, when they need it, and supporting them to take action.

We will do this through our own Service, and through others, either in partnership or through referrals. This means not just waiting for people to come to our Service, but getting more people to stop, think, and engage with their money as they go about their daily routine.

We will provide a more engaging service and apply a rigorous evaluation regime to determine the effectiveness of our interventions. We will seek the views of expert researchers to help us evaluate the Service. We will continuously improve our tools and content based on this insight.

What do these strategic themes mean we will do in 2014/15?


Focus on 2014/15: our strategic themes

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Strategic theme 2: Improving access to high quality debt advice for over-indebted people

We will aim to increase the number of people taking action after receiving high quality debt advice through our funded projects and work to improve the overall quality of debt advice across the sector.

We will implement three year funding arrangements with providers in England and Wales, based on a range of principles aimed at improving the quality, consistency, and availability of debt advice.

We will also work with other funders to improve the supply and uptake of quality debt advice across the whole sector and promote consistent processes and evaluation. We will do more to link up our debt advice work with efforts to increase the general population’s financial capability - helping to reduce the risk of more people becoming over indebted.

Strategic theme 3: Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability

We will do more to help people manage their money better, across the UK, by collaborating with and supporting other organisations to boost people’s financial capability.

A key driver to support other organisations and boost financial capability is ‘A Financial Capability Strategy for the UK’, which we will coordinate, but which will be co-created and owned by organisations across the sector. Through the UK Strategy, the Service will work with stakeholders to agree priorities for action. Alongside this, the Service will deliver a framework for evaluating financial capability programmes and create a more effective means to share best practice.

Our research and customer insight will also serve to drive the debate about what everyone (advice providers, the financial services industry, regulators and government) can do to improve people’s financial capability.


15Focus on 2014/15: our strategic themes

Priorities for the Service in the devolved nations

Across all these themes, it remains a priority for the Service to work closely with the devolved nations in 2014/15. The Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales Governments all have distinct Programmes for Government and policies around financial capability. The Service has a dedicated manager in each of the nations to liaise with the Government, local authorities, advice organisations and representatives from industry and third sector groups.

In 2014/15, our devolved managers will continue to work closely with key departments within each Government to support their respective financial capability and inclusion agendas, and help ensure that people are supported to manage their money throughout the introduction of major welfare reform.

Alongside the final business plan in March 2014, we will publish three separate booklets, detailing the specific work we will be doing in each devolved nation in 2014/15.

A few examples of our nation-specific work include:

nnWorking with partners in Wales to deliver the outcomes within the Welsh Government’s ‘Tackling Poverty Programme’ and the implementation plan of the Money Advice Service’s Wales Strategy.

nnSupporting the Scottish Government and Money Advice Scotland to develop a Scottish National Standard for financial capability, and ensuring financial capability underpins the Child Poverty Strategy.

nnContinuing to work closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Investment to support the Northern Ireland Executive’s Financial Capability Strategy.

The rest of this document sets out our objectives and initiatives across each of the three themes and our Key Performance Indicators to measure our success. The plan concludes with a budget summary for 2014/15.


Section 16

Theme 1:Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives

Our objectives against this theme are to:

Make money advice a normal part of everyday life

Encourage people to stop, think and engage with their money

Get people to take action to manage their money as a result of the Service


17Theme 1: Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives

4 The Financial Capability of the UK, Money Advice Service, 2013.

This theme is about giving people the help they need to overcome their financial inertia, engage with their money, and take steps towards positive money management which will help prepare them for income shocks and achieve their life goals. We know there is a real need to help people – our recent Financial Capability research showed that people are struggling to manage their finances. In 2006, a third of people were struggling to pay bills on time and this has risen to over half in 2013. Over a third of consumers in the UK sometimes or often run out of money. Overall, our research suggests that people are focused on the here and now, rather than planning for the future, including for unseen emergencies4.

We will continue to offer our free, impartial advice service across all our channels - website, face-to-face, phone, web-chat, and of course through our partners, providing people with content and interactive tools on a diverse range of money matters.

What will we do differently in 2014/15?Our focus in 2014/15 will be on ‘normalising’ the need for money advice. Our first objective against this theme is to make seeking out money advice a normal and easy thing to do – whether this is about looking for information on a specific topic or needing help to deal with a big financial commitment like buying a house or managing debt. Money advice should be easy to find, something that friends and family talk about, and an accepted part of everyday life.

A key lesson we have learnt about money advice, through our research, is that people often know what they should do, but don’t act on this knowledge. This could be due to inertia or uncertainty about what to do next. So, our second objective is to help more people stop, think and engage with their money. We will engage people by increasing our presence in their everyday lives.

Our research suggests that people are receptive to money advice when they are facing big life events - such as buying a home, going through a divorce or separation or retiring. These are also the times when there is a risk of financial detriment if people do not make the right decisions. We want to reach out to people who are experiencing key life events, interrupt their thinking, and prompt them to consider the implications of their choices, including the benefits of seeking more information.


Theme 1: Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives

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Our third objective in this theme is to help more people take action to manage their money effectively. This is about helping people take positive steps to change their behaviour towards their money. Basic money steps could include budgeting, reducing debt, saving regularly, preparing for retirement, and preparing for possible financial shocks. We will support this objective by enhancing our customers’ experience – making sure we quickly recognise their needs and preferences and direct them to the right information. If customers need the help of another organisation or advice provider, we can refer them onwards in the most effective way.

We will provide new step-by-step journeys for customers to follow on the website when experiencing big financial events. These journeys will be designed to ‘coach’ customers through significant events that have financial consequences. They will be interactive – customers will be prompted to answer questions and led to the appropriate answer. The big life events we will focus on in 2014/15 include buying a house, approaching retirement, and separation or divorce.

We will underpin this approach with deeper insight about customer needs. Last year we identified a target audience of people who would benefit from advice about how to manage their money – this covered about 10.2 million people. Whilst this target group remains important for the Service, we will continue to work to better understand the needs of the whole population and the risks faced by different groups if they do not receive help. We will do this work with key stakeholders including the FCA and other bodies.

Finally, we will base our approach on thorough and continuous evaluation of the Service. We will open up this evaluation process to our stakeholders – setting up a Research and Evaluation Reference Group of external experts to help us measure our success and apply improvements to the Service to give customers the help they need.


19

Strategic Objective: make money advice a normal part of everyday life

How we will do it What we will deliver - examples of initiatives

Powerfully engage with the UK public on a subject which many find intimidating and confusing

Maintain a stronger presence in people’s everyday lives through key campaigns and other activities to engage people. The focus will be on helping people understand why they should think about the benefits of engaging with their money.

Strategic Objective: encourage people to stop, think and engage with their money

How we will do it What we will deliver - examples of initiatives

Reach out to people in their everyday lives, though partnerships and directly, at the point they need money advice

Develop more content and advice through partnership organisations, such as charities, commercial, financial and public sector organisations, that help people at key life stages, for example: buying a home, taking a loan, claiming benefits, starting a family.

Targeted activity to interrupt people, get people to think about their finances and show them the benefits of money advice. Key points to target people are when:

nnThey are searching about financial matters online: we will match terms they search with money advice content.

nnThey receive correspondence about a financial product: we already provide printed guides with relevant information. For example, letters from pension providers to people considering retirement include a guide from us on annuitisation and the benefits of shopping around.

nnThey are seeking new employment or thinking of claiming benefits: we will provide printed guides in Jobcentre Plus.

Educate consumers on key financial issues that could impact them and give them helpful information what about to do next

Targeted activity to provide educational messages to people on specific consumer issues - for example, helping people understand and manage their credit rating.

Theme 1: Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives


Section 20

Strategic Objective: get people to take action to manage their money better

How we will do it What we will deliver – examples of initiatives

Enhance our digital advice channels to provide a more engaging experience that makes it easy for people to get the help they want and take action

Make the website more accessible on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

Maintain and evolve the Service’s existing content, tools, calculators and comparison tables and develop new material, with input from stakeholders, to meet changing demands.

An improved referral process from the Service to other sources of advice.

Ensure that our offline channels – face-to-face, telephone and web-chat – meet the needs of our customers

Continue to maintain levels of high quality face-to-face, telephone and web-chat services which meet demand and respond to specific needs of customers.

An improved strategy across channels: better integration of customer data across all channels and smooth transition between online and offline services. At the heart of this will be an enhanced Customer Relationship Management system that will share customer information across all our services.

Develop engaging step-by-step journeys to guide people through big financial decisions or processes and encourage them to achieve their goals

New online and interactive ‘life event’ journeys for customers to be taken through, step-by-step, on the website. Topics we will cover in the first phase of this work include: buying a house, facing divorce/separation and approaching retirement. We will also support people through budgeting and saving for major expenses.

New tools and content to support the life event journeys, including flagging where individuals should seek professional financial advice or need to be aware of legislative changes that could affect their decision.

Build and maintain customer relationships so we are more timely in responding to needs and can help prompt people to take positive actions

A more personalised relationship with customers through regular and relevant communications such as newsletters, emails and prompts to encourage them to take action.

Collect and analyse more customer data to evolve our advice and content so that it is as effective as possible in helping people to take action

Develop and implement a new evaluation strategy to measure the effectiveness of our content and tools in helping people change their behaviour. This will involve collecting and analysing more customer data to show what they are using, how they are using it, and what is supporting people to take action.

An enhanced customer testing framework: a new panel of users to test tools, and a new knowledge hub with detailed information about customer feedback.

Establish a Research and Evaluation Reference Group. This Group will bring together research and business improvement experts to assess and improve the way the Service is evaluating its success and turning this insight into a better service for customers.


Section 21

Theme 2:Improving access to high quality debt advice for over-indebted people


Increase the number of positive outcomes for debt advice clients using funded projects

Increase uptake of high quality advice across the sector and fulfil it with available supply

Promote the use of preventive measures to reduce the levels of over-indebtedness


Theme 2: Improving access to high quality debt advice for over-indebted people

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This theme is about supporting more people with financial difficulties to take control of their lives by helping them to manage their debts and become more financially capable. To do this we need to further enhance the capabilities of our funded programmes, continue to coordinate positive change across the sector, and help reduce over-indebtedness by focussing on preventive measures.In 2013/14, we have worked with the sector to develop new frameworks to improve the quality of debt advice at both the individual and organisational level. In 2014/15, we will build on this foundation, embedding these frameworks into our new funding arrangements and promoting their adoption more widely across the debt advice sector.

We remain committed to improving debt advice across the whole sector and will continue to work with governments, advice agencies, funders and creditors to improve advice provision for over-indebted people.

In Northern Ireland, we will continue to fund the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to fund and deliver a multi-channel debt advice service, provided by Advice NI. We will also continue to work with our partners at the Scottish Legal Aid Board to fund debt advice programmes in Scotland.

What will we do differently in 2014/15? The biggest change in 2014/15 will be our transition to a three year funding arrangement with debt advice providers in England and Wales, which will begin in October 2014. These new agreements will require advice providers to meet a number of new objectives to further enhance the advice they provide to clients. These objectives (full list on page 24) will include directing customers to the most appropriate channel for their needs, to ensure that face-to-face advice is used by those who most need it, and helping people who are over-indebted become more financially capable, with the financial skills, knowledge, and confidence to be able to cope with possible future income shocks. This move will help to increase the number of debt advice clients reaching positive outcomes. A positive outcome can mean many things: it could be a client knowing what steps they have to take to resolve their debt problems, a client taking action, or a client’s situation being brought under control5.

We intend to move towards similar long-term arrangements with our partners in Scotland and Northern Ireland in the future. Over the course of 2014/15, we will work with Scotland and Northern Ireland’s governments to consider and develop proposals for these longer term funding arrangements.

In setting up these agreements, we have integrated requirements for organisations to adhere to our quality standards framework, and to assess their performance against our evaluation framework on an annual basis. We will also ensure quality through peer review,

5 For the full list of outcomes, see the evaluation framework:

moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/debt-advice-evaluation-toolkit-registration

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/debt-advice-evaluation-toolkit-registration


23Theme 2: Improving access to high quality debt advice for over-indebted people

getting advisers from different organisations to review each other and provide feedback on the quality of advice.

Our focus for 2014/15 will also be on increasing the supply and uptake of debt advice. One of the ways we will do this is through a funders’ forum, bringing together all those who fund debt advice, which we will use to promote consistent evaluation methods, and more joined up commissioning approaches to target the supply of debt advice towards those areas where there is particularly high demand. We will also use our recent research on customer segmentation to target those most in need of help, and make them aware of free debt advice.

We know that there is much more that we, and others across the debt advice sector, can do to give over-indebted people the skills to manage future income shocks, and avoid becoming over-indebted again. Our third area of focus is around taking preventive measures to reduce levels of over-indebtedness, by giving over-indebted people the skills to become more financially capable and by working with creditors and the FCA to better identify those people who are at risk of becoming over-indebted.


24

Strategic Objective: increase the number of positive outcomes for debt advice clients using our funded projects


Sign new three year grant agreements with partners in England and Wales

We will sign funding agreements with organisations that do the following:

nnDeliver a service to the whole of the community, including marginalised people

nnDemonstrate how their service addresses a gap in provision in their area

nnMeet one of the Service’s accredited quality standards

nnDemonstrate working to the outcomes set out in the Service’s evaluation framework

nn Integrate measures to make clients more financially capable into their delivery model

nnPromote access to telephone and digital debt advice to meet demand

nnUse a consistent common initial assessment to direct customers to the most appropriate channel for their needs

nnUse a single, recognised budget template which creditors will accept, and which is based on ‘standard’ calculations (Single Financial Statement)

nnDemonstrate appropriate partnerships for referral to other types of advice

nnHave a system in place to track referred clients, including those referred from creditors

Strategic Objective: increase the uptake of high quality advice across the sector and fulfil it with available supply


Encourage better cooperation and coordination between funders of debt advice

Set up a funders’ forum to encourage adoption of

nna single, recognised budget template which creditors will accept and which is based on ‘standard’ calculations

nncommon initial assessment principles to direct customers to the most appropriate channel

nn streamlined referral processes

nnour quality framework

nnour evaluation framework

Increase awareness of free-to-client debt advice in targeted segments

Design, implement, and pilot a direct-to-consumer marketing campaign based on insights from our customer segmentation research, with a focus on promoting telephone and online advice.



25

Strategic Objective: promote the use of preventive measures to reduce levels of over-indebtedness


Improve clients’ financial capability through the debt advice journey

Improve ways in which customers are referred from our offline money advice channels to crisis debt advice.

Require our funded programmes to embed financial capability into their debt advice programmes. This means providing clients with the skills, knowledge, and confidence to prevent them becoming over-indebted again.

Work with creditors and other key stakeholders to promote intervention before customers get into financial difficulties

Engage with creditors to identify best practice in identifying and helping people before they fall into arrears and push for consistent implementation across the sector.

Define pre-arrears best practice and share it.

Work with regulators to influence policy and improve the landscape for customers

Work with the FCA as they take on responsibility for consumer credit from April 2014. Work to embed the Service’s quality framework in the process by which consumer credit organisations are authorised by the FCA.



Section 26

Theme 3:Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability


Enhance the financial capability debate by sharing research and insight

Lead and coordinate joint efforts to improve the financial capability of the UK through ‘A Financial Capability Strategy for the UK’

Support and contribute to other organisations’ efforts to improve financial capability


27Theme 3: Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability

This theme recognises that our statutory duties require the Service to go further than providing direct money advice and coordinating debt advice in the UK. We also need to lead and bring together organisations that share the goals of improving the financial capability of the UK.

The Service has millions of visitors every year, giving us a unique insight into what customers need and which interventions have the biggest effect on changing financial behaviour. In 2014/15, we will share more of our research and customer insight about what works, to identify gaps across the sector, drive debate and help shape the development of new policy, regulation, products and services.

We will take a more open and collaborative approach to evaluation, by setting up a Research and Evaluation Reference Group (see also p18). As well as helping the Service to evaluate its own performance, this Group will consider how the effectiveness of financial advice more broadly is evaluated and make recommendations for improvements.

We will lead and coordinate joint efforts to improve the financial capability of the UK through A Financial Capability Strategy for the UK (the UK Strategy). We will bring together stakeholders from across the financial capability landscape, so that we can collectively address needs, set out immediate priorities and agree a common approach to evaluation. We will support advice providers and others by providing the means to share evidence and best practice.

Finally, we will support and contribute to other organisations’ efforts to improve financial capability. We will work with our partners in governments, industry, and the advice sector, to feed our insight into policy development, so that it better meets the needs of consumers.

A key element of supporting other organisations is our work with the devolved nations which have specific financial capability requirements. Each nation has different legislative responsibilities and Programmes for Government. We will continue to deliver nation-specific advice where appropriate, and material in Welsh, in line with the Welsh language scheme. For each devolved nation, we have a dedicated manager, who hosts a national forum, works with key government bodies, and who works on behalf of the Service in that nation to build strong relations with stakeholders and encourage joint approaches to meeting people’s financial capability needs.


Theme 3: Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability

28

Strategic Objective: enhance the financial capability debate by sharing research and insight


Extend our innovative research programme across money advice and debt advice and share our insight and research with stakeholders

Establish a Research and Evaluation Reference Group to help us evaluate the success of the Service and consider evaluation across the wider financial advice landscape.

Continue tracking the UK’s financial capability against our baseline, and against key indicators of financial capability, including: managing debt well, saving regularly, saving for retirement, budgeting, protecting dependents and protecting assets. We will refine these indicators through consultation with stakeholders to ensure they are the right ones to use to measure financial capability.

Conduct new, regular surveys of customers to investigate the range of actions they are taking as a result of coming to the Service.

A new evaluation strategy across the Service – linking insight about customers’ experience and actions with improvements to the business.

Conduct research and further pilots to determine what influences young people’s behaviour over time.

Continue to build our insight about different needs across the UK population and the risks that different groups face

Joint work with the FCA and other stakeholders to share our customer segmentation research to reach a collective view of need, risk and detriment if we do not take action.


29Theme 3: Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability

Strategic Objective: lead and coordinate joint efforts to improve the financial capability of the UK through ‘A Financial Capability Strategy for the UK’


Coordinate the UK Strategy to agree priorities for financial capability among key stakeholders

Support a steering group of stakeholders to lead the co-development of the UK Strategy.

Working with stakeholders, publish the first iteration of the Strategy in Summer 2014.

Support development of other financial capability programmes and facilitate the evaluation of programmes and sharing of best practice

Deliver an evaluation framework in consultation with other organisations to assess the effectiveness of financial capability programmes.

Deliver a financial capability micro-site, which will host research, share best practice in interventions, forums, and the evaluation framework.

Provide the Service’s content and tools to partner organisations, to use on their service for their customers

Further develop the ‘Partnerships self-service hub’ which allows other organisations access to our content, to embed relevant tools from our website into their own service.


Theme 3: Drive the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability

30

Strategic Objective: support and contribute to other organisations’ efforts to improve financial capability


Work closely with Government and regulators to provide input on development and roll-out of policy

Work with the Department for Work and Pensions to help prepare people for the introduction of Universal Credit and support their budgeting needs as they adapt to the new arrangements.

Work with the Department of Health and others ahead of and during, the roll out of social care reform to help make sure people get the information they need about possible impacts on their budget.

Work with the FCA on the development of new regulations around payday loans. Share insight around the risks of vulnerable groups taking out payday loans and work with other organisations to help ensure that people considering taking out a payday loan are fully informed about alternative options and potential risks.

Work closely with the devolved nations of the UK to address their specific financial capability needs

Chair and participate in key financial capability forums across all nations in the UK, bringing together Government, third sector and industry.

Work with partners in Wales to deliver the outcomes within the Welsh Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy ‘Taking Everyone into Account’.

Support Scottish Government and Money Advice Scotland to develop a Scottish National Standard for financial capability.

Continue working closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Investment to support the Northern Ireland Executive’s Financial Capability Strategy.

Work with the Scottish Government to ensure that financial capability underpins the Child Poverty Strategy.

Working with the Department for Social Development in the development of a Financial Independence Strategy for people affected by welfare reform in Northern Ireland.


Section 31Money Advice Service Business Plan 2014/15

Section 31

Evaluation of the Service and measuring our impact



32

Evaluation is a key focus for 2014/15. We want to fulfil our statutory objectives of enhancing the financial knowledge and ability of people to manage their finances and improving the quality, consistency and availability of debt advice. We also want to influence and coordinate the wider financial capability landscape. And we want to be a highly efficient and effective organisation. Measuring our impact will be essential to evaluate our success against these ambitions.

In 2014/15 we will develop and build on our existing framework of key performance indicators.

The diagram below sets out our framework for 2014/15.

Business plan theme Role Indicators

Deliver a highly effective service, making a real impact on people’s lives

A universal information and resource hub

Total customer contacts and satisfaction

Number of times we have provided customers with help they required

A targeted behaviour change catalyst

Number of actions taken as a result (in full or in part) of using the Service

Support over-indebted people to access high quality debt advice across all delivery channels

A coordinator of debt advice

nnNumber of debt advice sessions

nnNumber of actions taken as a result of debt advice sessions

nnEffectiveness in improving the quality, consistency and availability of debt advice across the sector

Divide the wider agenda to improve people’s financial capability

An influencer of the sector nnStakeholder view of the Service’s influence (money advice and debt advice)

Become a more efficient and effective organisation

An efficient organiser nnOutputs: Annual Report and accounts

Key Performance Indicators Framework 2014/15


33Evaluation of the Service and measuring our impact

We have added five new KPIs to reflect our role as a provider of information to help people manage their finances and take positive action. The new KPIs also reflect our role as a funder and coordinator of debt advice, and as an influencer of the wider landscape. As in 2013/14, we will continue to measure the total number of customer contacts, customer satisfaction targets, and number of debt advice sessions.

In 2014/15 we want to be much more collaborative and open with stakeholders about how we measure our effectiveness in helping people take action to better manage their money. This recognises that measuring behaviour change, especially around financial capability, is difficult and that evidence is lacking of what works and what doesn’t in helping people. As highlighted earlier, we will set up a group of research, evaluation and business improvement experts to help us review how we measure our success and turn this insight into a better service for customers. We want this group to be a means to share more of our customer insight with stakeholders, and collectively think about and agree on ways to measure effectiveness across the financial capability landscape.

Measuring financial capability

In last year’s business plan we introduced five high level outcomes, which we treated as indicators of the type of behaviour commonly associated with financial capability. Throughout 2013/14, we have tracked the behaviour of customers and the UK population against these indicators, which included: managing debt well, saving regularly, saving for retirement, protecting your assets and providing for your dependents.

We set ourselves a target in 2013/14 of achieving at least 480,000 positive actions against these high level indicators. In the first quarter of 2013/14, we had reached 184,000 positive actions, and are on track to exceed our target for the full year.

Although we are not explicitly setting a target for 2014/15, we still consider these to be key indicators of financial capability and will continue to track these indicators, through our Financial Capability tracker, across the UK population and the Service’s customer base. In 2014/15 we will add ‘maintaining a budget’ as a sixth indicator, reflecting the importance of regularly reviewing incoming and outgoing costs. Over the long term, this tracking will give us a good picture of the broader impact of the Service in helping to make a difference to the financial capability of the UK.


34

Values for our Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The following table sets out provisional values for our KPIs in 2014/15:

* Six month target, see below for further details

Key Perfomance Indicators Target

Total customer contacts 15,000,000

Number of times we have given customers the help they required (new) 6,000,000

Number of actions taken as a result of the Service (new) 4,500,000

Number of face-to-face debt advice sessions (April 2014 - September 2014) 87,500*

Number of actions taken as a result of debt advice sessions (April 2014 - September 2014) (new) 78,750*

Customer satisfaction measures - customers:

nnagree they have been provided with the information required (replacing ‘information’ with ‘help’ in 2014/15)

nnagree we helped them decide on a course of action

nnagree they will revisit the Money Advice Service

nnwould recommend the Service

82%

70%

88%

85%

Number of clients supported by debt advice that: (new)

nnworks to a standard which meets our quality framework (quality)

nnuses a Single Financial Statement (consistency)

nnhelps them access the right channel (availability)

Setting a baseline in 2014//15

Sector: (new)

Providing effective leadership in the area of financial capability and improving the quality, consistency, and availability of debt advice in the UK

Setting a baseline in 2014//15



35

The targets in the table are provisional and are based on current estimates of what we expect to achieve in 2013/14. The ‘help received’ and ‘actions taken’ targets are based on customer exit polls in 2013/14, and a one-off deep action survey about the range and frequency of different actions our customers take. Between consultation on this document and the publication of the final business plan at the end of March we will refine these targets based on latest performance data, most recent research and stakeholder input.

We have only set six month targets for debt advice sessions and actions as we are transitioning to a new funding model in October 2014. We will update these figures before final publication of the business plan in March.

The following section explains each KPI in more detail, and how we will measure them.

Total number of contacts: 15,000,000This year we are aiming to attract 15 million contacts to the service across all channels. Contacts can include repeat visits to the site. This figure only represents contacts that directly access the Service, and not those who view our content on partner sites.

This is an increase of 25% on the 12 million contacts we anticipate achieving in 2013/14. This increase reflects our focus on improving levels of engagement among customers, rather than driving up customer numbers.

Number of times we have given customers the help they required: 6,000,000Our Service is about more than just providing people with information: we want to help them with their money needs. This new KPI will measure the quality of contact with our customers by showing how many times we give customers the help they require. It will help us to understand which parts of our Service are meeting customer needs, and which parts need to be refined and improved.

Currently, we ask customers whether we have given them the ‘information’they required. We will be refining this question to ask ‘did you get the help that you required?’.

Number of actions taken as a result of the Service: 4,500,000We know that our customers take a number of positive financial steps as a result of using the Service. This new KPI measures our impact by showing how many and which actions customers report taking as a result of their interaction with the Service.

We will track this through a new on-going survey which will look at actions taken across all channels. It will give an indication of which areas of our Service lead to action, and the effectiveness of each of our delivery channels (website, webchat, phone and face-to-face).



36

Below is a provisional list of the actions which we intend to track. We will ask users from across all channels if they have taken particular actions as a result of their interaction with the Service.

We will refine these these questions for 2014/15, and welcome input from stakeholders on our approach. On the ‘financial product’ question, if someone answers that they have bought a product, we will ask which product they bought, and collect this information.

Have you sought further debt advice

Have you reduced/stopped the use of your credit card

Have you changed the way you’re borrowing

Have you contacted your creditors regarding your debt problems

Have you reviewed the options for your savings

Have you switched your savings to another account (e.g. for higher interest rates)

Have you started saving regularly

Have you started to pay into a pension

Have you increased your pension contributions

Have you reviewed your retirement planning options

Have you worked out how to maximise your income for retirement

Have you purchased an annuity

Have you purchased insurance coverage for your assets

Have you reviewed your insurance coverage for your assets

Have you reviewed your insurance to protect your dependents

Have you started to manage your budget

Have you reduced or cut back spending

Have you shopped around for the best deal on utilities

Have you increased your income

Have you checked your social security entitlements

Have you applied for social security benefits

Have you applied for tax credits

Have you bought a new financial product or opened a new account

Have you consulted other forms of relevant advice



37

Number of debt advice sessions: 87,500 (UK wide - six month target)We have set a target of 87,500 sessions across the UK for the first half of 2014/15. We will set a figure for the whole of 2014/15 in the final business plan, once we have liaised with our funded programmes.

At present, our KPI is ‘number of face-to-face debt advice sessions’ as, under our current funding model, we fund face-to-face sessions. However, as we transition to our new funding model from October 2014, this measure will change to ‘number of clients that received high quality debt advice’, to capture clients who are helped online, over the telephone, and face-to-face.

Number of actions taken as a result of debt advice sessions: 78,750 (UK wide – six month target)We conducted research in October 2012 which indicated that 90% of debt advice sessions led to a client taking action. We are updating this research to take into account our new evaluation framework. We expect the results in February, and will update this figure in the final business plan in light of this research.

In addition to our current measure of ‘actions taken’, our new evaluation framework will measure fifteen client outcomes, including:

nnKnowledge: the client has a clear idea about the steps required to resolve their debt problems

nn Impact: the client’s financial situation being brought under control

We will use the results from the first wave of evaluation as a benchmark for our expected performance in the second half of 2014/15. As this KPI is now broader than clients taking action, we will be reframing it as ‘positive outcomes from debt advice sessions’, from October 2014.

Number of clients supported by debt advice that:

nnworks to a standard that meets our quality framework (quality)

nnuses a single financial statement (consistency)

nnhelps them access the right channel (availability)

We have a statutory objective to improve the quality, consistency, and availability of debt advice. This does not only apply to our own funded projects, but to the whole debt advice sector. This new KPI is a quantitative measure to assess our effectiveness against our statutory objectives.

In 2014/15 we will conduct research to establish how most effectively to measure this and set a baseline, before setting a target in 2015/16.

Influence over the sector:

nnProviding effective leadership in the area of financial capability

nn Improving the quality, consistency, and availability of debt advice in the UK

In addition to our direct offer to customers, we are working towards better co-ordination of the wider financial capability and debt advice sectors. This will involve sharing research and insight, putting in place frameworks to help the sector evaluate the effectiveness of projects and measure quality in a consistent way, and working closely with key stakeholders from across both sectors.

To track how effective we are as leaders and partners across the advice sector, we will use our annual stakeholder survey to set a baseline, which will give an indication of stakeholder opinion in these key areas. We will use this insight to tailor our approach, and in 2015/16, we will work to improve on our 2014/15 baseline.




Resource summary 2014/15This chapter provides a breakdown of the total Money Advice Service Budget for 2014/15, and a comparison against the 2013/14 budget.

The total Money Advice Service budget for 2014/15 is £77.5m, a reduction of £0.8m from 2013/14. Separate budgets for money advice and debt advice make up this total – this reflects the separate levies on the financial services industry for each stream.

The Service is spending 80% of its money advice budget on front line delivery and customer engagement, as it did in 2013/14. Support services have been held at a consistent 10% of total budget.

For debt advice, 94% of budget is utilised for frontline delivery and its advice support (as in 2013/14), with 4% on coordination and research activities and a further 2% on support services.

The table below shows the high level breakdown of the total budget, compared to last year:

2014/15 2013/14 Movement

Total Money Advice Service budget £77.5m £78.3m (£0.8m)

Money Advice budget £43m £43.8m (£0.75m)

Debt Advice budget £34.5m £34.5m (£0.05m)

The following tables provide a further breakdown of the separate budgets for our money advice provision and our debt advice provision. For both budgets, we provide a summary of variance in the budget for 2014/15 compared to the previous financial year.



Money advice budget with staff costs included

Money Advice Details of expenditure 2014-15 £000's

2013-14 £000's

Movement £000's

Front line delivery

Face-to-Face Delivery of 101,200 face-to-face sessions

7,071 6,525 546

Telephone and web chat Delivery of 108,500 telephone, web chat and email sessions*

805 1,774 (969)

Printed guides Print and distribution 1,273 1,200 73

Digital Website development, user experience, testing, maintenance and hosting

6,069 5,723 346

Proposition and product development Develop step-by-step life-event journeys for the website, enhance existing products, research and develop new products that meet our customers’ needs

3,496 3,696 (200)

Partnerships Delivering advice to people through our partners’ websites and services, and developing specialist products for partners

2,394 2,319 75

Total Front line delivery 21,107 21,237 (130)

Engagement

Marketing A range of activity, from campaigns to digital marketing, aimed at encouraging people to take action

12,680 12,680 -

Corporate Comms and PR PR campaign activities, stakeholder engagement and internal communications

775 831 (56)

Total Marketing and Comms 13,455 13,511 (56)

Strategy and co-ordination

Policy Developing the Financial Capability Strategy for the UK, the Service’s own business strategy and hosting events and forums around the UK to coordinate financial capability activities.

1,047 904 143

Consumer Insight and Research Gaining insight from customers, testing of products with customers, continuation of financial capability tracker and measuring our impact.

2,181 2,206 (25)

Support Services Delivery of IT systems and data, facilities, procurement, HR. and finance

4,024 4,636 (612)

Board and Executive Team Board and Executive leadership team (includes administrative support)

1,203 1,267 (64)

Total** 43,016 43,761 (745)

* Our commitment to being a multi-channelled hasn’t changed, and we are working on channel shift, and raising awareness of these services to drive demand

*Please note: staff costs are included in function.

Money Advice 2014-15 %

2013-14 %

Movement %

Front line Delivery F2F, Telephone and web chat, digital and website development, product and proposition development.

49% 49% 0%

Engagement Consumer communications, including PR and stakeholder engagement.

31% 31% 0%

Policy Development of the UK Strategy and the Service’s own strategy

2% 2% 0%

Consumer Insight and Research Research, insight, measuring our impact 5% 5% 0%

Support Services IT systems and data, facilities, procurement, HR and finance

10% 10% 0%

Board and Executive Team Board and executive leadership team (including administrative support)

3% 3% 0%

Total 100% 100% 0%

Summary of movement in money advice budget (as a proportion of total money advice budget) from 2013/14




Section 41

Debt Advice Details of expenditure 2014-15 £000's

2013-14 £000's

Movement £000's

Front line delivery

England and Wales* Funding to partners to provide face-to-face sessions

27,070* 26,762 308

Scotland Funding for provision of debt advice to people in Scotland

2,700 2,700 0

Northern Ireland Funding for provision of debt advice to people in Northern Ireland

783 783 0

Total front line delivery 30,553 30,245 308

Second Tier Support

Specialist support Funding to support provision of specialist advice to third sector debt advisers

800 750 50

British Sign Language/Action on hearing loss

Service available to grant-funded debt advisers to enable provision of advice to the hard of hearing

47 47 0

Language line Service available to grant-funded debt advisers to enable provision of advice to those who cannot speak English

94 95 1

Training Provision of training to F2F grant-funded debt advisers

200 0 200

Support for organisations to adopt quality standards and for data sharing

720 974 (254)

Total Second Tier Support 1,861 1,866 (5)

Co-ordination

Support for projects not funded by the Service

Funding to enable them to implement any changes to comply with new standards

478 945 (467)

Peer review Set up and running costs of work to enable debt advisers to review each others’ work

250 - 250

Total Co-ordination 728 945 (217)

Policy and Research Funding supply/demand study, evaluation of advice delivery and other research and policy initiatives

694 280 414

Support Services IT systems and data, facilities, procurement, HR and finance

638 1,142 (504)

Total** 34,474 34,478 (4)

Debt advice budget with staff costs included

* In the debt advice budget, the 2014/15 funding shown for funded face-to-face services in England and Wales (£27m) is based at 2013/14 levels. As we move to a three year funding arrangement from 1 October 2014, we are working with our partners to agree the appropriate supply level required to meet demand. The timing for this means that we will not have certainty on the budget for funded face-to-face services until early 2014. We will aim to update the budget for the final business plan, published in March 2014, pending negotiations with the Financial Conduct Authority.

** Please note: staff costs are included in function.



Summary of movement in debt advice budget (as a proportion of total debt advice budget) from 2013/14

Debt Advice 2014-15 %

2013-14 %

Movement %

Front line Delivery Provision of face-to-face sessions in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

89% 88% +1%

Second Tier Support Support of specialist advice to third sector debt advisers

5% 5% 0%

Co-ordination Enabling delivery partners to implement any changes to comply with new standards

2% 3% -1%

Policy and Research Funding a supply/demand study, evaluation of advice delivery

2% 1% +1%

Support Services Delivery of IT systems and data, facilities, procurement, HR and finance

2% 3% -1%

Total 100% 100% 0%



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2014/15 business plan consultation

Documents